I rarely carry cash, preferring to use my debit card. When I’m at a really casual restaurant that requires customers to go to a cashier to pay the tab yet has full service from a waitstaff (think IHOP or something), I always wonder: do waiters/waitresses think they’ve been stiffed on a tip when a diner has, instead, left a tip by paying for it with the card at the register? Any SD members with food service under their belts?
I’m always afraid that the waitstaff that has served me will think I’m a cheapskate; likewise, I get the feeling that they will be unaware of customers who leave particularly good tips-- they’ll cash out and get a single lump payment, without knowing which of their customers appreciated their service. (I do try to catch my waiter/waitress as I leave and let them know I’m putting their tip on my card, but that’s often impossible to do in a busy restaurant.)
I would assume that these days, most servers aren’t expecting a cash tip. If it’s custom to pay at the register, presumably the server gets her tip once the cashier has a chance to step away, unless it’s totaled up at the end of her shift.
I ate breakfast at a Perkins today, and for reasons I won’t delve into right now, I felt like brightening someone’s day. My bill for pancakes, sausage and coffee came to $9.61, I paid $15.
Not a lot for me, but the service was fine, the waitress friendly, and I was glad to do it.
When I waited tables, I was always my own cashier…but I bartended at a restaurant that did have a cashier, and trust me when I say that the servers always knew. “What did so-and-so tip me?” was a common question.
A hefty amount of people pay by credit card; I can’t imagine a server who would assume they got stiffed because there isn’t any cash on the table after you’ve gone. If they have any concerns about it, trust me they’ll check with the cashier!
Yeah I think it happens enough you shouldn’t worry.
I have the opposite problem. I like to tip in cash, even if I put the bill on my card. So often I have to sheepishly cross out or put “zero” on the tip line when at the register.
The person waiting on you has a pretty good idea from your attitude towards them whether or not you’re going to tip. And if you get a really big tip the cashier will probably tell you who it was, but other than that, I’ve asked the cashier about some tables when I couldn’t get a read on them, but mostly just waited until the end of my shift to find out. Our CC tickets were stapled to the check, so I could associate a table with a tip, and if they really stood out in my mind, associate a person to that table.
I usually use card to pay for meals at restaurants and leave a cash tip on the table, but it never occurred to me to point it out on the check. I’ll be doing this from now on.
Thank you.
That they take and run your credit cards themselves? Because plenty of restaurants do that. What does it matter to you who swipes the card or takes your money?
No; that’s fine when it’s table-side service. They run the card and return the slip for me to sign and THEN write the tip on. They’re not standing over me while I write the tip.
At restaurants where you pay at the cashier’s station, and the cashier turns out to be your server. Then the person who waited on you, who may have sucked and deserves a crappy tip, is eyeing you down as you write.
At those (IHOP) type places I always play “stupid” and set my CC on top of the bill and wait for her to come get it herself. (sometimes I have to point it out to them because they’re not expecting that.)
I usually try to tip cash anyways tho’ because I hear it’s better for the waitresses that way.
FTR “I am my own cashier” means that the restaurant didn’t have a cashier.
And if you want to tip your server poorly, because they did a crappy job, I don’t understand why it would bother you to be witnessed doing so. Wouldn’t it make even more of a statement to write out and hand that CC receipt over to her, fully aware she’ll see the crappy tip? Or is it better to tip like crap in “secret,” so she doesn’t know til you’re out of the building?
Silliness.
If she did a bad enough job to be tipped very poorly, you should not be embarrassed to be witnessed tipping her that poorly. And if you are embarrassed or irritated by her witnessing of this event, you’re being irrational.
When I was a waitress at a crappy Italian restaurant about 15 years ago, our @#$%&*! boss (I’m sure he had a bad childhood. In fact, it was fairly clear he was having a bad adulthood and could look forward to a bad afterlife) would always skim some off the top of our credit card tips whenever anyone relaxed vigilance over him for a second.
Sometimes I will leave a tip in cash if I get a vibe that the server might not get all of it otherwise, although if you get that vibe you probably don’t want to be eating there anyway.
One of the local newspaper columnists did a big series of articles about how certain establishments were keeping a portion of the tips left on credit cards (or in tip jars at coat checks) for their own use, and not giving them to the server. One place said the skimmed money went to a Christmas party for the staff…a party they had never heard of or been invited to. She encouraged people to always leave their tip in cash whenever possible, so that you could be sure the server gets it. I’ve tried to abide by that ever since, but sometimes it’s hard, and a lack of ready small bills has kept me from going out to eat on occasion other than picking up a carry-out order.
Wow, that’s crazy–I’d never heard of that! I always thought wait staff preferred cash tips because it was therefore easier to avoid taxes. I’m a school teacher, and taxes pay my salary as surely as tips pay theirs, so I don’t really see the percentage in playing along with that game.
And they probably really hate you for it and ignore you until you either get up and go to the cashier, just like everyone else (because you walked by the cashier on your way in, and there’s a sign telling you so, and sometimes (Waffle House) it’s written on the check telling you where to pay, or they smoke a couple of cigarettes and realize they’re not going to make any money unless their tables turn.
But it’s OK, because you really are more important than everyone who gets up and goes to the register.
It has nothing to do with being embarassed, it just opens the door to invite awkward and unnecessary conversation.
I’m not overly picky with waitstaff; I just want prompt and correct service from someone who even remotely looks like they don’t hate their job. If I leave a poor tip (which is rare; with me, I either leave a great tip or no tip), I don’t want to have to spell out my reasons for doing so. I don’t want to invite nasty looks as she rings in the check. I definitely don’t want a “screw you too.”
By the time I pay, I’m done and ready to go, and my mind has been made up regarding how much I’m tipping. Why invite either apologies, looks, or conversation for no reason?
FTR, I wouldn’t be so opinionated about this if it hadn’t happened before.
